Hold the needle as you would a tiger..."
As an acupuncturist, Lin Ju's work is all about contact, but the life she leads outside her clinic couldn't be more solitary. Thousands of miles away from her native China, from her estranged husband and her daughter, Lin Ju is very much alone in the small English town she must call home.
When Lucy, a young English mother, walks into the clinic and opens her heart, Lin Ju's narrow world is transformed. The two connect immediately, but as their friendship deepens, Lin Ju finds herself in a dilemma that stirs memories of a painful secret: the betrayal of her beloved grandfather, who defied family and tradition to teach her his craft, during the turmoil of the Cultural Revolution.